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Viewing entries tagged with 'GCPO'

Privacy is sometimes wrongly seen as antithetical to information sharing. It is not. Privacy and information sharing are different sides of the same coin. Our Privacy Act could just have easily and just as accurately been called the Information Sharing Act. Rather than arbitrarily limit what information can be shared, with whom, and for what purposes, the Privacy Act provides a framework for safe information sharing.

Every day New Zealanders hand over their personal information to government departments in exchange for a range of services, from benefits to drivers’ licences. From the citizen’s perspective, these transactions are based on trust that their information will be handled safely and securely.

Over the past few months, I have visited over 40 government agencies to talk about privacy. In many cases I’ve been impressed by the depth of knowledge that exists across the sector on this topic, although there is still much work to be done.